HO-LA! Prostitutes flash their goods in Cartagena, Colombia, where Secret Service agents lived it up before President Obama’s arrival last week. (
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The Secret Service hooker soiree in Colombia cost three respected presidential bodyguards their careers yesterday — the first casualties of a scandal that has sullied the agency’s reputation.
The swift fallout came amid a growing internal probe by the Secret Service into how many of its supervisors, agents and uniformed officers used last week’s assignment of protecting President Obama in Cartagena as an excuse to act like sailors on shore leave.
Among those forced to turn in their badges was a supervisor who was removed for cause, a second supervisor who was forced to retire, and a uniformed officer who resigned, the Secret Service announced. They were not identified.
A source said the dismissed officer plans to sue for his job back.
Eight other Secret Service members remain suspended as the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility investigates the shenanigans last week at the Hotel El Caribe, where as many as 20 Colombian call girls partied with Obama’s security detail.
Some of the Secret Service agents are being subjected to polygraphs, and may require drug testing as well.
The men had partied last Wednesday night into the wee hours of Thursday morning — just a day before Obama’s arrival in the Caribbean resort city for the Summit of the Americas.
About 10 US military members are also under investigation for their roles in the bacchanal.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to grill Janet Napolitano, head of the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service, at a hearing next Wednesday.
“They will have a lot of explaining to do based on the information that is out there,” said a Judiciary source.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has called for all the personnel involved in the partying to be canned.
Meanwhile, the hooker who sparked the scandal spoke publicly for the first time, saying her Secret Service-agent john propositioned her at a nightclub and promised her an $800 “gift” in exchange for sex.
The next morning, when hotel staffers called to kick out the 24-year-old single mom, the agent said he was drunk when they negotiated her price — and offered her a measly 30 bucks.
“I tell him, ‘Baby, my cash money,’ ” the unnamed hooker told The New York Times.
“An escort is someone who a man can take out to dinner. She can dress nicely, wear makeup and act like a lady. That’s me,” she said. “It’s like when you buy a fine rum or a BlackBerry or an iPhone. They have a different price.”
The agent cursed at her and threw her out.
A cop who was in the hallway intervened on her behalf and later informed the US State Department.
The call girl said she agreed to accept $250 — the amount she gives to her pimp — and the agent forked over $225 in US dollars and Colombian pesos.
She said she was unaware that the agent was in town to protect the president of the free world.